Currently the Hawaii County budget is in bad shape and a lot of sacrifices are being asked of county employees. Property tax collections are down and despite a salary freeze since 2009 expenses are too high in comparison to tax revenue. According to the Hawaii Tribune Herald:

Yagong identified 86 positions, comprising elected officials, department heads and their deputies, and submitted a spreadsheet with the proposed salary cuts. If approved, the mayor, who is paid $109,152, would have his salary reduced to somewhere between $99,110.02 and $96,053.76.

In all, Yagong identified savings of between $705,420.40 and $920,113.56.

“The recommended reduction in salary does not suggest that our salaried employees are not doing a good job for the people of the County of Hawaii,” Yagong said in his March 13 letter. “The recommendation reflects the continuing trend of reduced revenues in real property taxes collected. These employees represent the higher paid tier of non-union county workers. These salary reductions would be a first step of many that needs to be taken as we continue to deal with the tough economic times ahead.”

Crawford asked the commission to retain salaries at current levels.

“Most employees have seen their pay held at the same level for four years,” she said in a March 14 letter to the commission. “Their pay is further reduced by the one-day-per-month furlough that is in effect (through June 30, 2013).”

But while county employees are being asked to endure the pain of budget cuts, it turns out that instead of saving money, the County has been spending it lavishly in other areas according to this commentary:

Take, for example the recent proud purchase of five Chevy Volt cars for the County of Hawaii by Mayor Billy Kenoi. A recent Tribune-Herald news article shows him standing like a proud papa next to the shiny cars at the formal display ceremony, during which he proclaimed, “It couldn’t come at a better time, when we look at rising fuel prices … . Hopefully we can grow the electric fleet and have it be the county fleet.”

These plug-in electric/gas hybrids cost us $47,000 each, or a total of $235,000 for five. They can go about 30 miles on electric power alone, then need recharging. When the gas engine kicks in, they get about 37 mpg and require premium gas. Recharging the 16-kilowatt battery daily at our highest-in-the-nation electric rates — about 40 cents per kilowatt hour — costs about $6.40 a day.

For less than half the purchase price ($21,000), a comparable sized and powered Chevy Cruze uses regular gas and gets about 30 mpg. Let’s take an extreme case, and say gas is $5 per gallon. That means that the Volt costs $1.40 per day more than the Cruze to drive 30 miles, and costs twice as much to buy. For the same cost we could have had 11 Chevy Cruzes and saved on operating costs as well.

Supposedly the intent behind this purchase was to save money on fuel according to this article:

Kurohara said this was part of a broader push by the Billy Kenoi administration to invest in the vehicles and “being a leader by example.”

This is part of the larger effort “to look at how we can be more efficient, how we can save money on fuel,” Kurohara said.

A little math tells us that Hawaii County is paying $26,000 ($47,000 – $21,000) more for what is essentially the same car. The only difference being that it can go 30 miles before needing to use gas or to be recharged.

Even if the County is saving a few pennies on gas, it is losing $26,000 on the purchase price of a single car. How can this be justified in a time when belts need to be tightened and salaries need to be cut?

What is worse, is that these cars may not even be saving money on fuel costs either. If they aren’t using gas, they are using electricity and that electricity costs money. You might say, well this energy will come from solar panels so its not costing anything. But the solar panels cost money and if they weren’t being used to charge the cars they could feed the grid and be earning money at roughly $0.40/kwh.

So no matter how you slice it, roughly $130,000 extra was spent on a fleet of cars, whose fuel costs are actually higher than a comparable alternative.

Several bills before the Hawaii State legislature aim to make our very own Hilo Hawaii more appealing to aerospace and space tourism companies. Is this pie in the sky or a new era for high tech in Hawaii? According to an article in the Washington Examiner:

Hawaii Island is already at the center of the state’s aerospace industry, and the University of Hawaii-Hilo has been selected as the site of a proposed lunar research center where new technologies can be tested in environments that replicate outer space.

Now two proposals before a House and Senate conference committee would allow the state to make the Big Island even more attractive to aerospace and lunar transportation companies. A third would allow the state to invest in aerospace tourism.

One bill seeks to give tax incentives to companies in an attempt to encourage them to come here:

Another bill creates a special district in downtown Hilo that will use state and county tax incentives to draw major aerospace companies to Hawaii Island.

While another bill seeks to change who controls the funding to PISCES and increase the amount of funding:

A different proposal would provide more flexibility and funding to the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems, or PISCES. The center is currently under UH-Hilo, but this proposal would transfer oversight to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

Now I’m not against making Hawaii more attractive to aerospace and space tourism companies. But why not make Hawaii more attractive to all companies especially the ones that have been here for generations? Why should a select group of companies get tax incentives and funding, while other companies are left to struggle with high taxes and lots of red tape?

The first macadamia nut tree was planted on our island in 1881 by an Australian tourist (in the days when our vocabulary didn’t include words like invasive species.

In 1921, Ernest van Tassel, planted the first commercial macadamia nut orchard on Oahu, but it didn’t work out so well because the seedlings where not true to type.

In 1946, Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corporation, was established and it planted its first orchard in Kea’au.

Today, Mauna Loa’s processing facility, which is located just outside of Hilo continues to process tons of our favorite nut.

For the full story see: http://www.maunaloa.com/about/history.asp

This May 1st, 2012 a Lei Day festival will be held at the East Hawaii Cultural Center. Here are the details from the Examiner:

Queen Hokulani will preside over Hilo’s community Lei Day Festival, themed “He Mo`olelo ko ka Lei – A Story of the Lei” on 1 May, 2012. The festival, held in the East Hawai`i Cultural Center, opens at 10:00 am with the decorating of the ku`ahu Lei, and closes at 3:00 pm with the singing of Hawai`i Aloha. The festival is free and open to the public.

Queen Hokulani also invites the public to join her for tea at Lei Day, on the upstairs lanai of the Cultural Center. While the event is free, seating is limited, so tickets are required. inquire at info@LeiDay.net.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Hilo Lei Day festival releases official Royal Portrait – Honolulu Culture | Examiner.comhttp://www.examiner.com/article/hilo-lei-day-festival-releases-official-royal-portrait#ixzz1snfmtiFd

Queen Hokulani has lived an exciting life and has worked with many famous people. The article also says:

She also danced and choreographed for,and toured with, Don Ho, Tommy Sands, Dick Jenson, and Elvis Presley. Probably she is most familiar to Continental audiences as the Blue Hawaii solo dancer in Elvis Presley’s Blue Hawaii TV special. Hokulani also has been featured at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel as lead dancer and choreographer.

Hope you can make it.

Here’s a real estate listing for a Hilo Condo. What is it doing on a Maui website???

Take a break with condo living in an excellent location!

Newly renovated! Move-in-ready.

This 1-bedroom 1-bath is centrally located to banks, dining, drug store, schools, State and County Buildings and within walking distance of almost everything in downtown Hilo.

It must be fun for those Maui folks to do an open house. Sure it’s a short plane flight to Hilo. But still, it’s a plane flight!!!

What they don’t tell you in the listing is that it is right next to a Burger King. If you like flame broiled burgers, this is definitely the place for you.